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777 sats \ 1 reply \ @028559d218 24 Mar \ parent \ on: Replacing Cash With CBDC Would Pose A Grave Threat To Our Rights and Freedoms econ
i have an article I recommend, really
i'm reading it now
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/03/23/trump-nixon-petrodollar-oil-trade-war-00241811
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."
Alexander Fraser Tytler
The problem is in the apex of the nation state- the government, that has been captured by private interests and no longer serves the common good...and the body of the western democratic nation state- the citizens who have grown complacent and apathetic and allowed this to continue.
This part I agree with. People have grown lazy. None of these issues are that complex...
The budget deficit the US has, living beyond its means, isn't rocket science but the citizens don't really want the spending sorted out.
Like I said social security, medicare, and defense are most US spending but the voters don't actually want that stuff cut.
I agree with you on the 'corporate interests and lobbyists' stuff. There's definitely too much of that. However I don't think it's a conspiracy. I want to look at it simply.
Having said that, keeping money long term in the fiat of an indebted nation to me just seems crazier and crazier. Doesn't matter which one it is, all of it is pretty much a bad idea.
Lowering import duties would worsen the chronic trade deficit. Investing in infrastructure and education would have results if the underlying economy had areas where it could viably compete internationally - but does it?
Lowering import duties would lower costs for consumers. And in the long term, help US companies to be more competitive. The "trade deficit" isn't actually a problem.
There is no way Mexico is going to 'buy more from the US' than the US 'buys from Mexico' the US is way wealthier so has more to buy...
The problem of the 'trade deficit' is actually a budget deficit... but that is not an economics problem. It is a political problem.
Most federal spending is in Medicare, Social Security, and Defense... but if you're a politician good luck cutting spending in those areas.
As far as infrastructure and education goes... there is a huge shortage of skilled tradespeople. Electricians, welders, master plumbers... there aren't enough in the US so that's what people do to get better jobs... and the government should help them. "The debt" doesn't matter at this point. Either the US gets more competitive... or it won't matter in the long run anyway.
The big threat the US faces isn't necessarily excessive borrowing (although that is an issue) it's lack of global competitiveness.
And the solution if there is one is investments in education, infrastructure, and new technologies.
If that doesn't get sorted out, the debt will never get repaid and the US is cooked regardless.
If it does get sorted out... (and the US becomes more competitive again) the debt is still significant but it will be OK eventually. People will still buy US debt even if it looks like a "bad idea".
A more competitive US and people will be eager to buy it for what it's worth.
Lowering import duties. Basically making goods cheaper for americans.
and more broadly, investing in infrastructure and additional education for americans so they can upskill/reskill and get better jobs.
The US has a huge shortage of skilled tradespeople for jobs that pay well and i don't know why trump never talks about it
In my opinion, if he were actually knowledgeable about US competitiveness he would be doing the absolute opposite.
I don't think Trump knows anything...
Have you seen this? Does this guy look like someone who has a plan for US prosperity? Or anything else?
I don't think ultimately that it's 'the government' or 'the banks' really preventing Bitcoin as a MoE.
I mean their tax treatment of it doesn't help for sure.
But if people, even in the United States "The Empire" really wanted to use Bitcoin for Medium of Exchange they would just do it. I don't think Americans, a great great many of them would care about 'taxes' for daily payments, goods and services, daily expenses etc if they really wanted to use Bitcoin. I think they would just use it and... not care.
Supply follows demand and I never see 'Bitcoin accepted here' stickers advertised almost anywhere... despite supposedly 20% of Americans "owning Bitcoin" (I'm not sure I believe that number). I think that number is actually way way smaller and the number of people who 'use' Lightning a fraction of that even those "20%" Americans...
As far as Mr Trump's plan and US hegemony... I honestly don't believe Mr Trump is that smart.
I don't believe he has "a plan" except to pander to a domestic political base... and/or whatever he thinks they want based on what he sees on TV.
I don't believe Mr Trump has any idea what the BiS is or what it does... or the 'Five Eyes' or even the IMF anything like that. What the executive branch (white house) is doing I think he makes up... more or less on the spot there's no plan except 'what he feels' from day to day.
It's like the new "Gulf of America" renaming. How does that make the US military or economic situation any better? It's just marketing
Dude (and I apologize if you're not a dude I shouldn't assume)...
The US is doing absolutely everything it can, as fast as it can, to reduce its influence, dependence on, and relationships with all its traditional allies. The US is trying to make the rest of the world - developed or not - as distant from the United States as quickly as possible.
Everything else is "Europe's fault" or "Canada's fault" as to why the US isn't as prosperous as it used to be... and why China is growing faster economically than the United States.
My admittedly limited understanding of LN is that it is centralised
My understanding is that while it's not as decentralized as 'on-chain'... it is decentralized it's not just a big liquid or something. There are tons of apps, node implementations, open source node software, android implementations etc...
If the US controlled everything like it did 40 years ago... maybe the US could go door to door tracking down every lightning company, LSP, liquidity provider, node company, Lightning implementable, android repository etc...
But now? Now way. The Europeans will say 'screw you' 'none of your business' and the US is too politically chaotic and determined to tariff itself 'for freedom' to do anything constructive.
I wish this weren't the case, as the US in my opinion used to be a totally different country.
I think the capital gains stuff is really about 'traders'.
And specifically 'traders' who never take self custody but just buy and sell looking at some charts on coinbase or Kraken or somewhere else. Click to buy Click to sell rinse repeat...
Smart Bitcoiners 'don't sell' (for obvious reasons) not only because it's a dumb idea, but because selling is trading and 'trading' is a losing strategy.
And imagine all the 'shitcoinery' that needs to get reported to the 'authorities' - trading, selling, staking, NFTs, memecoins, tokens based on farts, dogs, penguins, Elons... more staking... 'safemoons', 'reddit moons', 'airdrops'... it's all complete nonsense of course.
But it's all 'taxable events'!!! I mean can you imagine the complexity???!!!
Who is going to parse and report all that stuff? Bitcoin is simple by comparison and if you're not trading does anyone care?
With regards to Lightning... it's easy to spin up a Lightning node and connect to 'another' node in almost any country. I don't know how nodes get served with 'orders' much less how they get enforced on individuals for using software.
Phoenix for example isn't even 'in' the United States - are they going to get served an order by the Americans?
and technically you should have declared the transition from L1 to LN as a tax assessment liable event.
99.99% of Bitcoin users if using Lightning will never do this.
Every time we zap each other on SN or otherwise use LN for payments, we are probably, technically, in breach of tax reporting and liability requirements.
My guess is that 99.9% of Bitcoin users are probably ignoring this or will ignore this.
Look at the zaps and sats on Nostr... are people declaring those for tax purposes?
but are they potentially track and traceable by the LN itself?
My understanding is that while Lightning is technically traceable, it is very difficult.
If they know you have Bitcoin they can offer to compulsorily acquire it and if you refuse that offer the government knows you still hold it or have disposed of it without paying any tax due or at least filing the appropriate tax assessment. KYCing with the ability to monitor ownership and subsequent tax liability makes it extremely inconvenient to lawfully use Bitcoin as a MoE as each and every transaction is liable for tax assessment.
If there are as many Bitcoiners as there supposedly are (according to Coinbase there are ~20% of the US population) there is no way the enforcement can take place for every zap, and every sat and channel close. It is completely impossible.
It would be like the government in the US deciding to 'confiscate all the guns'. Aside from the legality of doing so... there are over 300 million guns in individual homes and the manpower and resources to go 'door to door' doesn't exist. Or go door to door to collect seed phrases and lightning nodes (which is just software after all).
I say this especially considering the 'war on the federal government', for better or for worse, being waged by the Trump administration. I would imagine most federal employees are just trying to keep their jobs... not pay attention to Bitcoin Lightning transactions of little consequence
it also has zero structure or anti-spam incentives. with regards to the quality-quantity pendulum it is the exact opposite of Stacker in my opinion.
We have nowhere near enough Lightning-users for that.
Also the current state of Nostr isn't great. It's mostly spam and AI filler with no cost to post it needs pay-to-post.
You print up a billion tokens out of thin air... then sell them to people then...
???
How does this make sense?
My opinion... is that it's 'trader retards' trying to 'get rich quick'.
The same reason that people buy memecoins or 'tokens' on some random cryptocurrency. There really isn't a 'reason' or 'rationale'... it's all speculative.
To find the answer I take a quick look at Bitrefill. If it isn't used there at least as a quick payment method for something it tells me it's not money or capital.